July/August 2001

Timber Processing’s July/August issue features Louisiana-Pacific’s new green end in Florida that features a Hi-Tech Comact small log breakdown system. The southern pine lumber market could be better, but Delitic has not slowed down its upgrading system. Also, A Georgia community rebounds from one of its biggest economic setbacks since the boll weevil ravaged the cotton industry eighty years ago.

Weyerhaeuser Co. reported that based on the number of proxies it had submitted to the independent inspectors of election, Investor Voting Services, it appeared that the three Weyerhaeuser director nominees, following certification of the vote held during the Willamette Industries annual meeting on June 7 in Portland, Ore., would be elected to the board of directors of Willamette.

New Technology

Louisiana-Pacific Corp. has gotten serious about its sawmill business. In the South, the centerpiece of this commitment is its nearly 20-year-old southern pine operation here. In the past six months the mill has received an overhaul of the green end, and in the next few years will continue to be upgraded right through the planer mill.

Managing Fiber

Undeterred by weak prices, Deltic Timber Corp. has embarked on a drive to increase yield and value at its sawmill operations here. Both have been dramatically improved, and production capacity is at 120MMBF, though that should increase in the near future. “We’ve got projects planned for this year and throughout the five-year plan.

Washington, GA

Off a narrow, two-lane stretch of U.S. Highway 78, centered between Athens and Augusta, is the little town of Washington, the county seat of Wilkes County. Washington is a quiet, respectable town of 5,000, a place rich in history, charm and natural resources. All the trappings of small community life are here: the quintessential town square, equipped with a lonely stone Confederate soldier leaning on his rifle, dutifully surveying the landscape for advancing Union troops; scads of historic homes, places and monuments; and a slower-paced atmosphere that evokes the ambience of simpler times.

Planer Optimizer

Following the recent installation of a planer optimizer system, officials here at G-P’s southeast Mississippi Chip-N-Saw sawmill are seeing a markedly higher average value in the mill’s lumber output, thanks to an innovative system that combines automated dimensional grade scanning with traditional manual grading.

About Bearings

Begley Lumber Co. is a major East Coast producer of hardwood lumber products, supplying in excess of 60MMBF of mixed species lumber, cants, timbers, blocking and other products to secondary manufacturers throughout the several states surrounding the firm’s eastern Kentucky location. The company’s mills, located in London and Hyden, are showpiece facilities in terms of hardwood sawmill technology designed to maximize yield from a limited resource.